Day 3–Green Gables and Cavendish Beach (with swimsuits)

Adella’s excitement bubbled over and kept her from a good night’s sleep. At 4 am I felt a tap on my shoulder, and she was so worried because she couldn’t sleep. I laid with her and helped her fall asleep again.

At 9:00 we went to breakfast and had some delicious preserves. Besides potatoes, Prince Edward Island has their very own preserves company. It was delicious. However the best news of the day—Megan Follows (pronounced Mee-gun) was somewhere in town!

Now, if you are as big of Anne Shirley fans as we are, you’ll already know who that is. If not, she is unequivocally the best Anne Shirley ever. At 58, she has passed the opportunity to look like the young Anne we all know, but Adella could hardly contain herself. We immediately changed our shirt to “I’m a Gilbert Blythe kind of girl.”

If this post is getting you interested in the story, Anne of Green Gables has been translated into many languages. Pick one up today:

At any rate, we were on the hunt for Megan. Our first stop included Green Gables. To get there, we followed the Inn’s secret path onto a golf course. We crossed over hole 18 and made it to the Visitor’s Center.

Adella and I took time to read all the signs about Lucy Maud Montgomery. Our best suggestion would have been to label more of the pictures. We wanted to know all the people in the pictures.

We finished with the informational part of our tour and couldn’t wait to see the rest. Montgomery’s relatives lived on this farm, and she visited it many times. She, however, lived with her grandparents after her mother died (Maud was 2 years old at the time). Despite not living at Green Gables, much of her inspiration came from this home.

Imagine…orphaned at two, living with an elderly couple, enjoying the richness of language and words, and living life as an only child. Anne seems to parallel many parts of Montgomery’s life.

Now, as we entered Green Gables, we saw something that changed the course of our visit—Gilbert Blythe! Adella could not hide her shirt fast enough. I tried to tell her he wouldn’t read the shirt, but she still refused to pose with them. Instead, I took Anne and Gilbert’s picture sans Adella. (I even asked if she’d take a picture of me with them, but she just pulled me away quickly.)

To get away from our fictional friends, we started on Haunted Hollow. Future fans of Anne: these are all real places Anne named with romantic names.

We didn’t feel fear, but we loved the path. It came out by the cemetery and a park. We crossed the park to check it out! Imagine our surprise when we found Lucy Maud hanging out there!

We followed more paths and eventually made it to the post office. As described, this house was more in line with Montgomery’s grandparents’ home. Her grandfather has been postmaster general, and the post office was actually in her home.

Maud sent her manuscript through the post to many publishers, each time receiving a rejection letter. Eventually (I think the fifth or sixth time) a publisher decided to print her book, and the rest is history!

Okay, we thought Gilbert might be gone, so we returned to Green Gables. Adella outdid me with the pictures as she and her sister Millie are designing old houses.

We concluded the tour of the home and walked out the back door—Gilbert 😳. We then took off down Lover’s Lane (without Gilbert). It, too, was quite pretty and was Maud’s favorite path of all time.

The sun beat down on us, so we ended our tour at the Cordial Cafe, where we toasted the day with Marilla’s world famous Raspberry Cordial! I thought I was drinking cough syrup, but Adella couldn’t put it down!

We returned to our room for an Adella-imposed rest time. Then at 1:30 we got ready for the beach! This time we headed to the lifeguard patrolled Cavendish Beach.

It was a day to remember. We finished it off with some free ice cream then dinner!

I can’t end the day without telling you the best part. We talked with the front desk lady often. On one of our last exchanges she told Adella she had a gift for her. It turns out, she gave Adella her very own Anne Shirley hat with red pigtails. Adella couldn’t believe it. She had the most perfect day ever…and so did I!